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Saturday, 27 April 2013

Enchanted Orb - Nicole Murphy on finding the heart to continue

One thing, a writer needs is inspiration, but another is the ability to keep writing - and this sometimes needs a little help. Australian writer Nicole Murphy has found that inspiration, and has a few tips to assist those of us who might need to find it, as well.

Take it away, Nicole!

***

What inspires me to keep going when it
seems things aren’t working out.

Previous Enchanted Orb posts have dealt
with what inspires writers to write, what inspires individual stories. They are
fabulous posts – if you’re looking for a bit of inspiration yourself, go have a
read.

What I want to talk about today is what
inspires us to keep going during the dark times. They happen – to all writers.
A book or series doesn’t sell as well as you’d hoped. The contract you were
sure was coming suddenly evaporates. Your first book is finally out, after
years of struggle, only to be met by a bad review.

There are times it seems that we writers
are masochists and you wonder why you keep going.

Not writing, that is. Writers will forever
write. But submitting. Publishing. Shoving your precious words and stories out
into the cold, harsh reality of the world.

Here’s some of the things that have
inspired me and kept me going.

Hearing other writer’s horror stories. I did a series on my
blog called “Dreams and Fulfilment” where I asked fellow writers to talk
about the ups and downs of the journey. The one story that particularly
hit me was Kerrelyn
Sparks’ story. I love Kerrelyn’s books, and reading her tale of the
hit after hit she took before she had success has many times helped me get
up, dust myself off and keep going after my own hits.

Keeping snippets of great feedback from the past. The first bit
of feedback I ever got that I kept was from science fiction great Piers
Anthony. I was in an anthology that a collaborator of his published. After
Piers kinda trashed most of the stories, he said there was two stories
that held potential and that he kinda liked reading and one was mine! Over
the years, I’ve collected more – mostly from reviews, but also the
occasional fan letter. When it seems everything is conspiring to tell you
you suck as a writer, these remind you that you don’t.

Switch it up. When my urban fantasy trilogy Dream of Asarlai
didn’t do as well as the publisher and I expected, to the extent they
knocked back the sequel, I decided to take a break and move into
contemporary romance. I’ve just sold my second contemporary novel, so that
seems to have been a great step to take.

Experiment. Spend some time away from the
genre/characters/world of the book that’s dragging you down and play with
words, ideas, themes. Go way out. Write poetry if all you’ve ever done is
prose. Write horror if all you’ve ever written is fluffy bunny stuff.

Do something for others. There’s an ancient Chinese proverb
that says something along the lines of ‘when times are dark for you, do
something good for others and you will find the light’. When we’re feeling
bad, it’s hard to think of doing a good thing for others but it really
does help take you out of yourself. For me, I like to do things such as
run conventions or edit and publish anthologies. Helping contribute to
other people’s success makes me feel great.

Spend time with other writers. As you read this, I’ll be at
Conflux 9, the Canberra-based science fiction/fantasy/horror convention
I’ve been involved in running for ten years now. Immediately following
that, I’m off on a week-long writing retreat with my writing buddies. Their
support, encouragement and recognition that this is something all writers
go through will greatly inspire me to keep going.

So if you’re finding that you’re in a bit
of a slump because the dream isn’t turning out the way you want – try one of
these ideas and see if it can help you to bounce back.

Or perhaps you’ve got an idea that’s worked
for you in the past. Please share it.

***

Nicole Murphy is a
fantasy/science fiction/horror writer who also writes contemporary romance as
Elizabeth Dunk. Her urban fantasy trilogy ‘Dream of Asarlai’ was published by
HarperVoyager Australia
and her contemporary romance ‘Arranged to Love’ by Escape Publishing. Her next
contemporary, “The Lies We Tell’ will be out in August. She’s an editor,
publisher and convention organiser who’s looking forward to a chance to write
again.

2 comments:

Wow, I loved this post, Nicole. It's true that the hardest part of the journey for a writer is trudging the tough miles when the chips are down. Your suggestions are great and help keep the flame burning - to share our work with others, no matter what obstacles. Thank you and *HUGS*

I so hear you on this, Nicole. ATM, I'm in a CFS brain fog funk that doesn't help dealing with words (images are easier). I have to tell myself it's okay to take breaks from writing and this too shall pass. I've been writing little snippets down so nothing is wasted of things I do have ideas for.